Locus Focus

Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein talks with local, regional and national experts, activists and policy makers about climate change, food policy, land use, salmon restoration, forest management and all the other things that matter in our environment.

Pesticides are a danger to salmon. Pesticide toxicity impacts the viability of salmon streams and communities dependent on salmon fisheries. Recently a coalition of advocates for alternatives to pesticides, conservation organizations, and fishing groups reached a significant agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency that restores reasonable no-spray buffer zones to protect salmon and steelhead from five broad-spectrum insect killers—diazinon, chlorpyrifos, malathion, carbaryl, and methyl.

According to Patrick Martins, founder of Heritage Radio USA and Slow Food USA, it's futile for us to deny that we are carnivores. But in the face of a fast-food takeover and the destructive forces of factory farming, we need to make smart, informed choices about the food we eat and where it comes from.

On this episode of Locus Focus we talk with Martins, who along with Mike Edison, co-authored THE CARNIVORE'S MANIFESTO: Eating Well, Eating Responsibly, Eating Meat, a new book that cuts through organized zealotry and the misleading jargon of food labeling to outline realistic steps everyone can take to be part of the sustainable food movement.

Award-winning author, curator, and activist Lucy R. Lippard is one of America’s most influential writers on contemporary art, a pioneer in the fields of cultural geography, conceptualism, and feminist art. In her latest book Undermining: A Wild Ride Through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West, Lippard turns her eye to the politics of land use and art in an evolving New West.

For over 30 years, World Steward has focussed on "the 'art and science' of managing resources as if the future mattered." Located in the Columbia Gorge, the center stewards farm and forestland, and fosters educational programs that engage students of all ages in the preservation of ecosystems and local economies.

Guest host Kathleen Stephenson interviews Cristina Eisenberg about her new book, "The Carnivore Way: Coexisting with and Conserving North America's Predators." In "The Carnivore Way", Cristina Eisenberg argues for the necessity of top predators in large, undisturbed landscapes, and how a continental-long corridor — a "carnivore way" — provides room to roam and connected landscapes that allow them to disperse.

Audio

Today, Host Barbara Bernstein talks LIVE with several media personalities at the DNC in Denver. First up is Paul Bloom, long-standing activist. Next, Barbara talks with Katha Pollit from The Nation, finishing up with the Reverend Dr. Bob Edgar from Common Cause.

Host Marlene Howell substitutes for Barbara Bernstein today, bringing two main topics to the table.

First up, she invites opinions on Patriarchy versus Matriarchy as it relates to the wholesale Commodification of the entire planet's resources versus Sustainability. Is it even possible for our species (let alone mostother species) to survive our greed?

Part two of today's show asks the listenership: "What are YOU going to do TODAY to express your environmental values?" This is not meant as an esoteric question, but a practical one, inviting real behaviors that can be practiced today by average citizens to protect and preserve our lifeline.

Today, host Barbara Bernstein (The Media Project) covers the Olympics from the point of view of the environment. What was China like last year, what is it like right now, and what will it likely look like a year from now?

Host Barbara Bernstein (The Media Project) talks with Richard Charter, with Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, about the recent push for lifting moratoriums on off-shore oil drilling, why the idea seems to be winning public support, and what is wrong with the plan.

This morning Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein is joined by Timothy Ingalsbee, former forest firefighter and now executive director of Firefighters United for Safety, Ethics, and Ecology. They discuss causes for the current rash of wildfires in California and how they are in part a result of climate change.

This week on Locus Focus host Barbara Bernstein is joined by Frida Berrigan, Senior Program Associate, Arms and Security Initiative, with The New America Foundation. We'll be talking about repercussions of Obama's trip to Iraq and Afghanistan on the potential of actually ending the war in Iraq any time soon.

Host Barbara Bernstein leads a discussion with our listeners on two topics, one National, one Local: The Columbia River Crossing and the recent New Yorker cover, featuring a cartoon of Barack Obama and his wife dressed as terrorists.

Jerry DeWitt (bio), Director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, joins host Barbara Bernstein in a discussion about the impacts of climate change and agricultural practices on recent flooding in the midwest.

Host Barbara Bernstein talks about the recent severe weather and the impacts on Agriculture with Dr. Matthew Helmers, Assistant Professor at Iowa State's Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, and an expert in Agricultural and Water Resources.

Host Barbara Bernstein speaks with activist and author Tom Hayden. Hayden was a founding member of the Students for a Democratic Society in 1961, and author of its visionary call, the Port Huron Statement, described by Howard Zinn as "one of those historic documents which represents an era."

After helping lead street demonstrations against the war at the 1968 Chicago Democratic Convention, where he was beaten, gassed and arrested twice, Hayden was indicted in 1969 with seven others on conspiracy and incitement charges.
After five years of trials, appeals, and retrials, he was acquitted of all charges.

Hayden was elected to the California state assembly in 1982, and the state senate ten years later, serving eighteen years in all.

Barbara's second guest, Elisabeth de la Vega, (The Colbert Report), former federal prosecutor with more than 20 years of experience. During her tenure, she was a member of the Organized Crime Strike Force and Chief of the San Jose Branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California. Her current book, United States v. George W. Bush et al. is her personal protest against the atrocities afflicted upon our nation by the current administration. A pretty good list of offenses can be seen in Dennis Kucinich's recent Articles for Impeachment, presented before Congress in early June 2008.

Comments

Barbara, I hope you might forward my comments to your guest. I was only able to listen to part of today's program but I am very interested. I want to raise my concerns about two prevailing frames that arise on your show and throughout serious discussion of climate change that I believe do great damage to the efforts to raise the awareness of the public and help them understand the urgency needed when addressing this issue.
First is the frame that global warming is happening slowly and will continue to do so. I do not believe the facts support such an assertion and not only does no one know that warming will not suddenly serge forward it seems to be doing exactly that. A report out last week raised the projected temperature for the planet by the end of the century to 9F from 4F degrees. That means that we are going to hit 4F by---2040? Until recently no one imagined the arctic ice cap could melt in anything like our lifetimes but in fact it will and it may do so as soon as 2013! The problem with the frames that give people the impression that GW is a slow process is that it provides fauls comfort, "Oh, technology will fix it before it happens," or "It is not my problem." Neither one is the case but too many people still think that way. So please start using a different frame from "by the end of the century," or “future generations." Instead say "within our life times," and stress the urgency. After all it is much more accurate to say catastrophic climate change is happening right now.

The second frame is that one cannot attribute any given weather event to global warming. That is only partly true. In fact one might say that you cannot not attribute any given weather event to climate change such is the post-industrial influence on the pre-industrial trajectory of the climate---we have departed the Holocene and are in the Antropocene some scientist tell us. It is like a basketball launched toward a basket that gets tipped by one of the players. Its trajectory is for ever changed. I think it is more accurate to say that the weather everywhere and everyday has been influence to some degree by GW. This is important because the frame that one cannot tell if an event is caused by climate change is asking them not to believe there own "eyes," experiences, or impressions which are often very astute. For instance in Oklahoma where I grew up we used to have thunderstorms in April and the 100F days did not come until late July. This year they had wild fires near Oklahoma City in April and the temperatures have been in the hundreds throughout much of this June---that has increasingly become the trend and is consistent with climate change projections. Now Oklahomans should by all rights believe that what they are experiencing is in fact global warming. It may be noted that Inhofe is a Senator from Oklahoma and one of the most radical global warming deniers and obstructionist in government.
I have been keeping up with this issue for a long time now and am alarmed at the rapidity that things are taking place. I truly believe we are probably in for crop failures, water shortages, and mass migrations here in North America, in this country, within our lifetimes and whereas I think there is a fine line to be drawn to not panic or send people into despair I think scientist tend to be much too measured in their statements. It is as though there is smoke billowing out of the projection room and the scientists don’t want be caught dead yelling fire in a crowded theater because there is no "proof" that there is in fact a fire.
Scientist have long dismissed the near term risk of a methane/co2 release from the arctic or the ocean meanwhile there is growing indications that that is exactly what is happening. As a NASA scientist you should know that a huge methane release was detected on Mars a few years ago and that is within a much more static system than ours----that should give us pause!
The public needs to be prepared in case there is a sudden spike in methane from the Arctic so I hope in the future Barbara you will direct your discussions of climate change toward the rapidity of changes already taking place and the potential danger of being too complacent and smug about what we know and what we think we do or do not know. Thank you.

I recently interviewed Phil Mote who has replaced climate change denier George Taylor as Oregon's State Climatologist. Like any careful scientist Mote does not feel comfortable attributing specific weather events to climate change. But he gave me a analogy that I like: It's like playing Russian Roulette and adding a second bullet to the chamber of the revolver. If you blow your head off it doesn't really matter whether it was the original bullet or added bullet that did you in.

While I support solar energy, I warn against pie-in-the-sky proposals that make it sound like we can find new sources to keep living our wasteful lives. The scale of the problem is lost when we pretend that putting solar panels on 100 roofs signifies real change.

There is some hope to be found in using solar power efficiently. This does NOT include powering electric resistance heaters with photovoltaics. It does mean passive solar heating, solar hot water, and solar clothes driers (AKA clotheslines).

When you have used conservation and innovation to convert the wasteful electric grid into a sustainable system, then we can begin the conversation about supplimenting the system for our transportation problems. Until then, the only real sustainable alternatives to petroleum are wind, human, and animal powered vehicles. Coal and nuclear, the primary sources of new electricity, are polluting uses of nonrenewable resources.

Walk, ride a bicycle, sail (without motor), and use horse and ox cart, if you are truly concerned about the serious threat of climate change. Park your car forever. We cannot afford cars any longer.

i think now is a good time to talk more about what socialism actually is - common ownership of the means of production - and what is is not - redistributing wealth. you are right to continue pointing out that what obama is talking about is a progressive tax structure, not socialism.

the progressive tax idea actually comes from adam smith himself, "It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion." [from book 5, ch.2 on taxes]

The intro music to Locus Focus is a song by Hugh Masakela called "Change." It's on his album "Time," which came out a few years ago. I plan on playing the song each week until Robert Mugabe relinquishes power in Zimbabwe.

Did you see the piece in the NY Times re schizophrenia and autism having possible roots in parental dna - that is mother mix:father's mix? That is female characteristics manifesting as schizophrenia from mother dna and autistic characteristics from father's?